Person: Ivory, James

James Ivory was a Scottish mathematician who wrote on mathematical astronomy.

After his university education Ivory taught mathematics in Dundee Academy.
By 1815 Ivory's mental state seems to have worsened and he tried to resign his post but was persuaded to withdraw his resignation.
Ivory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815.
Between these dates, in 1838, Ivory gave the Bakerian lecture to the Royal Society, entitled On the theory of astronomical refractions.
Ivory and Wallace were early supporters of the work of the French analysts, especially Lagrange and Laplace.
Ivory's critical commentary of Laplace's Mécanique céleste was praised by Laplace.
Ivory wrote several articles for encyclopaedias, including the influential Equations in Encyclopaedia Britannica.
We mentioned above that Ivory, because of his mental problems, tended to quarrel with his fellow mathematicians.
His relations with Wallace deteriorated with arguments over Ivory's Attraction article to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Ivory's article on Capillary action for the same publication led to an argument with Thomas Young.
Many other cases were simply caused by Ivory suffering from a quite incorrect belief that he was being persecuted by others.

Born 17 February 1765, Dundee, Scotland. Died 21 September 1842, London, England.

View full biography at MacTutor

Astronomy, Origin Scotland

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive